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Orsières is a
municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...
in the district of Entremont in the canton of
Valais Valais ( , ; ), more formally, the Canton of Valais or Wallis, is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of thirteen districts and its capital and largest city is Sion, Switzer ...
in
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
.


History

Orsières is first mentioned in 972 as ''Pons Ursarii''. In medieval times, it was a stage on the ''
Via Francigena The Via Francigena (), also known as Francisca or Romea, is an ancient road and Christian pilgrimage, pilgrimage route running from the City status in the United Kingdom#Cathedral towns, cathedral city of Canterbury in England, through France and ...
''.


Geography

Orsières has an area, , of . Of this area, 16.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 25.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and 56.5% is unproductive land. The municipality is located at the foot of the Mont Blanc Massif on the road over the
Great St Bernard Pass The Great St Bernard Pass (, , ; ) is the third highest road pass in Switzerland, at an elevation of . It connects Martigny in the canton of Valais in Switzerland with Aosta in the region Aosta Valley in Italy. It is the lowest pass lying on t ...
. It is located on the border with both
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
and
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
and covers two valleys, the Val Ferret and the Vallée de Champex. It consists of the village of Orsières and twelve
hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...
including Champex, Ferret, Issert, La Fouly and Praz-de-Fort.


La Fouly

La Fouly () is a tourist destination for families and a starting point for many hikes into the surrounding mountains. This hamlet in the municipality of Orsières is located in the Val Ferret (
Valais Valais ( , ; ), more formally, the Canton of Valais or Wallis, is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of thirteen districts and its capital and largest city is Sion, Switzer ...
,
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
). It is a small ski resort sits at the feet of the Dolent () and the Tour Noir () in the Mont Blanc Massif. La Fouly is a stopping place for the
Tour du Mont Blanc The Tour du Mont Blanc or TMB is one of the most popular long-distance walks in Europe. It circles the Mont Blanc massif, covering a distance of roughly with of ascent/descent and passing through parts of Switzerland, Italy and France. ...
.


Coat of arms

The
blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...
of the municipal
coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...
is ''Argent, a Bear rampant Sable langued, armed and viriled Gules.''


Demographics

Orsières has a population () of . , 11.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008
accessed 19 June 2010
Over the last 10 years (1999–2009) the population has changed at a rate of 6.9%. It has changed at a rate of 6.5% due to migration and at a rate of 2.9% due to births and deaths.
accessed 06-September-2011
Most of the population () speaks French (2,531 or 96.2%) as their first language,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
is the second most common (37 or 1.4%) and Portuguese is the third (14 or 0.5%). There are 8 people who speak
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
. , the gender distribution of the population was 51.4% male and 48.6% female. The population was made up of 1,335 Swiss men (45.1% of the population) and 187 (6.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,280 Swiss women (43.2%) and 160 (5.4%) non-Swiss women.Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls
accessed 24 August 2011
Of the population in the municipality 1,784 or about 67.8% were born in Orsières and lived there in 2000. There were 361 or 13.7% who were born in the same canton, while 210 or 8.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 205 or 7.8% were born outside of Switzerland. The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 27.1% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 56.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16%. , there were 1,101 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,272 married individuals, 179 widows or widowers and 78 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 990 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 306 households that consist of only one person and 128 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 1,016 households that answered this question, 30.1% were households made up of just one person and there were 16 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 231 married couples without children, 377 married couples with children. There were 39 single parents with a child or children. There were 21 households that were made up of unrelated people and 26 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. there were 1,130 single family homes (or 75.8% of the total) out of a total of 1,491 inhabited buildings. There were 220 multi-family buildings (14.8%), along with 74 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (5.0%) and 67 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (4.5%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011
, a total of 951 apartments (44.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 1,025 apartments (48.2%) were seasonally occupied and 152 apartments (7.1%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0.7 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.3%.


Notable people

* Jean Troillet (born 1948 in Orsières), a professional mountain climber * Marcel Theux (born 1988 in Orsières), a Swiss ski mountaineer and long-distance runner * Daniel Yule (born 1993 in
Martigny Martigny (; , ; ) is the capital city of the district of Martigny (district), Martigny, cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Valais, Valais, Switzerland. It lies at an elevation of , and its population is approximately 20,000 inhabitants ( ...
), Swiss World Cup alpine ski racer


Heritage sites of national significance

The botanical gardens of ''Alpin Flore-Alpe'' are listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire hamlet of Commeire is part of the
Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage. Sites of national importance Types The types are based on t ...
.


Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 53.65% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (25.64%), the SVP (11.12%) and the SP (5.02%). In the federal election, a total of 1,468 votes were cast, and the
voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...
was 70.1%. In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 1,597 votes were cast, of which 46 or about 2.9% were invalid. The voter participation was 76.3%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 1,458 votes were cast, of which 96 or about 6.6% were invalid. The voter participation was 70.9%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.


Economy

, Orsières had an unemployment rate of 3.6%. , there were 139 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 53 businesses involved in this sector. 318 people were employed in the
secondary sector In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in constructi ...
and there were 35 businesses in this sector. 555 people were employed in the
tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the ...
, with 112 businesses in this sector. There were 1,137 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 33.9% of the workforce. the total number of
full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often use ...
jobs was 826. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 81, of which 71 were in agriculture and 9 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 302 of which 89 or (29.5%) were in manufacturing, 5 or (1.7%) were in mining and 179 (59.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 443. In the tertiary sector; 99 or 22.3% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 67 or 15.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 106 or 23.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 7 or 1.6% were in the information industry, 14 or 3.2% were the insurance or financial industry, 24 or 5.4% were technical professionals or scientists, 45 or 10.2% were in education and 14 or 3.2% were in health care. , there were 194 workers who commuted into the municipality and 446 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010
Of the working population, 9.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 60.7% used a private car.


Religion

From the , 2,357 or 89.6% were
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
, while 77 or 2.9% belonged to the
Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 11 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.42% of the population), and there were 12 individuals (or about 0.46% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
, and 38 (or about 1.44% of the population) who were
Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
ic. There was 1 person who was
Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
. 74 (or about 2.81% of the population) belonged to no church, are
agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...
or
atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
, and 64 individuals (or about 2.43% of the population) did not answer the question.


Weather

Orsières has an average of 100.9 days of rain or snow per year and on average receives of
precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...
. The wettest month is December during which time Orsières receives an average of of rain or snow. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 8.8 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is May, with an average of 9.7, but with only of rain or snow. The driest month of the year is September with an average of of precipitation over 7.3 days., the Orsières weather station elevation is 922 meters above sea level.


Transport

The municipality has two railway stations, and , on the Martigny–Orsières line.


Education

In Orsières about 917 or (34.9%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 198 or (7.5%) have completed additional higher education (either
university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
or a ''
Fachhochschule A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...
''). Of the 198 who completed tertiary schooling, 63.6% were Swiss men, 23.2% were Swiss women, 7.6% were non-Swiss men and 5.6% were non-Swiss women. , there were 89 students in Orsières who came from another municipality, while 73 residents attended schools outside the municipality. Orsières is home to the ''Bibliothèque municipale et scolaire'' library. The library has () 11,520 books or other media, and loaned out 24,400 items in the same year. It was open a total of 190 days with average of 8 hours per week during that year.Swiss Federal Statistical Office, list of libraries
accessed 14 May 2010


References


External links


Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orsieres Cities in Switzerland Municipalities of Valais Ski areas and resorts in Switzerland Cultural property of national significance in Valais